Improving the lives of western Colombia’s indigenous Emberra communities

/echo/file/improving-lives-western-colombia-s-indigenous-emberra-communities_enImproving the lives of western Colombia’s indigenous Emberra communities

Video of Improving the lives of western Colombia’s indigenous Emberra communities

Colombia’s ongoing conflict and violence has caused 345 271 new forced displacements in the past 2 years alone. Indigenous communities are often the first victims.

The EU and its humanitarian partner the Lutheran World Federation are providing assistance to the Emberra Dovida indigenous community – from western Colombia’s Chocó rainforest – which lives in remote villages that can only be reached by an 11-hour boat trip. Emberra communities live on the banks of the isolated Bebara river, and have suffered from both the armed conflict and from floods which recurrently destroy crops and settlements.

The Lutheran World Federation is supporting the Emberra Dovida in designing new ways to prevent the damage of floods and the loss of crops, so as to improve food security. This Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) project ensures families have enough food to last the entire year, regardless of the region’s extreme weather patterns.

The project contributes to the communities' resilience so that they remain in their ancestral territories despite the ongoing violence, and get better access to safe drinking water and improved food crops.